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^PLYnOUTH 

CORDAGE COMPJM 



PROCEEDINGS AT ITS 



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1899 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



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UNJTED STATES OF AMERICA. 




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The PLTMOUTH 

CORDAGE COMPAJ^T 

PROCEEDINGS AT ITS 

S evenly 'Jifth Anniversary 

OCTOBER SEVENTH, MDCCCXCIX 

1824-1899 




PRINTED AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS 
CAMBRIDGE, U. S. A. IN THE YEAR M C M 



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Copyright, i g oo, by The X 



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Plymouth Cordgage Company ' > ,^0 



yvvo copies heceivso, 

LIbra,ry of Coi!gPil% 

Gfflco of the 

MAY281900 

tSegUtor of CopJPlglftt 



•liGONOC^; 







ARRANGED AND FRINTED AT THE 
UNIVERSITY PRESS . JOHN WILSON 
AND SON . . CAMBRIDGE, V. S. A. 



List of Illustrations 

Main Mill. View from the top of "Crowe House," 

looking east Frontispiece 

Facing Pack 

Works of the Plymouth Cordage Co 4 

Bird's eye view from the top of the New Chimney, 

looking west 6 

View from the top of the New Chimney, looking 

inland, southwest 8 . 

Bird's eye view from the top of the New Chimney, 

looking south 10 

New Mill and Chimney, October i, 1899 .... 12 

Loring Reading Room 14 

Board of Directors, 1 899- 1 6 

Nathan Cooley Keep 18 

John Augustus Dodd . 20 

Caleb William Loring 22 

Caleb Loring 24 

James Harris 26 

Bourne Spooner 28 

Charles Walter Spooner 30 



Gideon Francis Holmes 



32 



Engine Room 34 



ii List of Illustrations 

Facing Page 

Power Alley, showing the Rope Drives . . . . 36 

Opening Room 38 

Preparation Machinery, Main Mill 40 

Spinning Machinery, Main Mill 42 

Horizontal Rope Machinery, Main Mill .... 44 

Large Rope Machinery, Main Mill 46 

Balling Machinery, Main Mill 48 

Tar House 50 

Looking down the Rope Walk 52 



The PLT MOUTH 

CORDAGE COMPANY 

PROCEEDINGS AT ITS 

Seventy-Jifth Anniversary 

'he Plymouth Cordage Company 
celebrated the seventy-fifth year of 
its corporate existence on Oct. 7, 
1899, by shutting down its mills 
for the day, and entertaining its 
stockholders and operatives at din- 
ner in the smaller room of its new 
mill, vi^hich at that time was near- . 
ing completion. About nine hun- 
dred and fifty operatives and two 
hundred stockholders were present. 
The employees took part in various sports, 
a programme of which will be found in the 
appendix. 

This year was notable in the history of the company 
not only as its seventy-fifth, but for several other 
reasons worthy of mention. It marked the fortieth 
anniversary of Mr. Gideon F. Holmes's service to 
the company, and in this year the company made the 
largest profit and the largest additions to its works it 
ever made in one year, and the reading-room for the 
employees was built and presented to the company. 

The additions to the plant consisted of forty-one 
tenements, and of a two-story mill five hundred and 
fifty-eight feet long, with complete and separate power 




P lymouth Cordage C ompany 

plant directly on the seashore, an5 separated from 
the other works by the railroad. When completed, 
this mill will contain fifty per cent of the company's 
preparation and spinning machinery. 

At the time of the celebration the chimney, two 
hundred and twenty-one feet high, was built and the 
mill partly roofed over. About half of the tenements 
were raised and roofed. 

The weather was propitious, and the programme was 
carried out successfully and enjoyably in every par- 
ticular. 

PRESENTATION OF READING-ROOM 

Though still unfinished, the reading-room was 
formally presented to the company as a memorial to 
Caleb William Loring, the late president of the 
company, by his son Augustus Peabody Loring, who 
spoke as follows : — 

" In making a formal presentation of this building 
A. p. Loringj-Q tjjg company it seems appropriate to make a i&vf 
remarks about its purpose and the man whose memory 
it is meant to commemorate. Caleb William Loring 
was born in Boston July 31, 1819. He was educated 
in the Boston Latin School and Harvard College, 
graduating from the latter in 1839. Three years 
later he was graduated from the Law School, and 
almost immediately was admitted to practise law at 
the Suffolk bar, in the exercise of which profession 
he remained until his death, Jan. 29, 1897. During 
the latter half of his career, however, his chief interest 
was in the management of property, and especially in 
the active promotion and management of the manu- 
facturing industries of New England. 



Presentation 
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P lymouth Cordage Company 

" Of all the many companies in which he was inter- 
ested, the Plymouth Cordage Company was always 
nearest his heart, and when, some years before he 
died, he resigned from the management of nearly all 
others, he retained his office in your company to the 
end. This interest in the affairs of the company did 
not come to him as an alien, since he inherited it from 
his father and grandfather, who had both served the 
company as clerk and director. His grandfather, 
Caleb Loring, was one of the originators of the com- 
pany and its first treasurer. With such inherited 
traditions, Mr. Loring became clerk of the company, 
which office he retained until 1884; in 1871 he was 
chosen a director, which office, and that of president, 
he retained until his decease. Mr. Loring served the 
company not only with zeal, but also with success. 
The course he advised in the many questions of gen- 
eral policy, and especially in the difficult ones arising 
from combinations and pools in which the company 
sometimes participated, but quite as often shunned, 
was in each case justified by subsequent events. His 
courage and tenacity in the great financial troubles of 
1893, materially aided in making the company what 
it is to-day. At all times his one aim was the good of 
the company. Of his private character, of his amia- 
bility and the courtesy that made him dear to those 
nearest him, I have but one instance to cite here. 
Standing on this spot on the last visit he made to 
Plymouth, he said he wished to do something for the 
operatives, something to make them happier because 
he had been a president of the company. Death cut 
the thread of his plans, but it has been the privilege of 
his children to carry out his wishes. I have had the 



P lymouth Cordage Company 

pleasure of erecting this building, anxi his other children 
will have the pleasure of furnishing it with books. It 
seemed to us that in no other way could we do so 
much for the employees of the company as in supply- 
ing them with a reading-room and good reading. In 
other words, in supplying them with the best company 
and the best friends the world affords. Here you can 
converse with the choicest spirits of all times. Here 
you can get relaxation and the inspiration or instruc- 
tion in worldly affairs or in the infinite concerns of 
the soul. It is with this memory in our minds, and 
with this hope in our hearts, that we deliver this build- 
ing into the care of the company." 
AcceptanM xhe treasurer, Mr. G. F. Holmes, accepted the gift 
Mr. Holmes Qj^ behalf of the company in the following words : — 

"There are certain events in the history of every 
person's life which fill him with pride and pleasure, 
and I count the present as one of these in my life, as 
I now, in the name of the Plymouth Cordage Com- 
pany and its operatives, accept this beautiful building 
and contents which you have so generously donated 
as a memorial of your father. 

" Well do I remember the day he expressed the hope 
that the time was not far distant when something 
could be done in the way of furnishing a reading-room 
for the use of our people. Through your thoughtful 
kindness we are about to realize the fulfilment of that 
wish ; and it seems to me the location decided upon 
for this building is particularly appropriate, for it was 
on this very spot your father stood when expressmg 
that hope. 

"There can be no more fitting memorial for any man 
than a library. Here all of us may receive the bene- 



P lymouth Cordage Company 7 

fits of our president's generosity ; and, as the years go 
by, its value will be still more appreciated. Who can 
foretell the extent of the good influence this may 
exert upon us all ? Knowing these people as well as I 
do, I feel justified in saying it will be freely used, and 
be a source of great pleasure to them, and help them 
to more fully acquaint themselves with many people 
and lands." 



PROCEEDINGS AFTER THE DINNER. 



, Remarks 



After dinner,'the President called the assembly to^® 
order, and in his remarks emphasized the fact that the President 
company had always stood for something besides and 
something better than mere gain, namely, honesty, 
honest rope, honest labor, and honest management. 
That its trademark on a coil of rope or a bale of twine 
was an absolute warranty never doubted, and that this 
quality of honesty, extending from the faithful day's 
work of the operative to the selling of the finished 
product, was one of the greatest factors in the com- 
pany's great commercial success. 

PRESENTATION TO THE TREASURER. 

He then called on Mr. Lauchlin D. McLean, who, 
on behalf of himself and his fellow employees, pre- 
sented Mr. Holmes, the treasurer, with a beautiful 
gilt and crystal clock. Mr. McLean spoke as 
follows : 

Mr. President, Stockholders and Employees of the Plymouth Cor^- presentation 
age Company : — ^^ ^^^^^ 

When notice was given that the seventy-fifth 
anniversary of the company was to be celebrated, 



8 Plymouth Cordage Company 

the employees thought it would be a fitting occasion 
to take some action that would show their appre- 
ciation of the kindness and interest in their welfare 
always shown them by one who has ever proved 
himself their friend, not alone in time of trouble, but 
continually. 

On two occasions in recent years has his thought- 
fulness been markedly shown. First, when the 
hours of labor were reduced, by legislative act, the 
pay per week was not reduced as was the case with 
other corporations. Second, when business depression 
fell upon the industries of the country, and company 
after company shut their doors or went on short time, 
by his superlative business ability he kept the wheels 
of this company whirling, not alone for the benefit of 
the stockholders, but also for the employees, that their 
homes might not feel the misery and want so many 
felt. 

Mr. President, we thought this time best fitted the 
purpose we had in view, practically the fortieth anni- 
versary of his connection with the company, as well 
as its seventy-fifth. 

Mr. Holmes, in behalf of all the employees of the 
Plymouth Cordage Company, I have the pleasure of 
presenting you this clock towards which all have con- 
tributed, as a token of the honor and respect in which 
we hold you. 

Three rousing cheers were then given for " our best 
> friend, Mr. Holmes." 

Remarks ^g gQ^j^ ^g ^^ cheering subsided, Mr. Holmes ex- 

Mr. Holmes pj.ggggj^ J j^ ^ few heartfelt words, his thanks for the 

beautiful gift and his appreciation of the feeling that 




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Plymouth Cordage Company 

prompted it. The presentation was a complete sur- 
prise to him, and he feared that he could not adequately 
express his feelings. He then read some notes on the 
early years of the company. 

ADDRESS OF MR. GIDEON F. HOLMES. 

In looking over our old documents in the office to get 
from them data relating to the history of the company, 
and some statistics which will be given you by my 
friend, Mr. Crocker, I came across some very inter- 
esting items, a few of which I would like to give out 
for your entertamment. 

Mr. Bourne Spooner, before establishing this com-0"gin 
pany, went to New Orleans to engage in the manu- Company 
facture of cordage, employing negro help. He 
became tired of slave labor, and thought free labor 
could be employed, and that he could make a success 
of the cordage business in his own town. He then 
came back and started these works. It was con- 
sidered a wild scheme to start this plant on such a 
small stream of water; but Mr. Spooner was confi- 
dent that he could use it to good advantage. Water 
was, therefore, used entirely until 1837, when they 
put in their first steam plant of very small horse power. 
The date is not known exactly, but in a letter Mr. 
Spooner wrote on Dec. 4, 1838, he says: "This is 
our second day of steam spinning." 

In June, 1824, two shovels were bought, also a 
horse and cart and wagon, also the land and water 
privilege for the rope-walk, and a lot for a house and 
store. The house was what is known now as the 
Spooner House, and the store, which stood by the 
brook leading from one pond to the other, was many 



lo P lymouth Cordage Company 

years afterwards moved away and m^de into a dwell- 
ing house. 

In the month of June, same year, we find Mr. 
Spooner's account of expenses to and from Portland, 
Brunswick, and Bath, Maine, for the purpose of pur- 
chasing lumber for the rope-walk and houses. We 
also find the amount paid for Act of Incorporation. 

Messrs. James and Thomas Bradford were the 
fortunate contractors who built the rope-walk, and 
Mr. F. C. Angell built the raceway and wall in the 
brook. 

In November the first insurance was placed on 
the buildings, to the amount of ^8,400 ; and the first 
purchase of hemp to be manufactured into rope Was 
fifty tons of Russia, bought from Robert Roberts. 
CertiacSe O^ F^b. 28, 1 825, the first certificate of stock 
of Stock issued was for thirty-eight shares to Mr. Caleb Loring, 
great-grandfather of our president, and among the 
first stockholders was Mr. John Dodd, father of 
Mr. John A. Dodd, who, for a number of years, was 
our president. 

In some private letters it has been my privilege to 
read, I found that Mr. Spooner, while in New Orleans, 
was in the way of making consignments of tobacco 
to Mr. Dodd, in Boston; I fancy that through these 
business transactions he became specially interested in 
Mr. Spooner, and through his influence became one 
of our stockholders, and the name is 'still on our 
list. 
Rope made •'■" ^^ spring of 1 825, the first rope was manufac- 
tured. There was some delay in starting to manu- 
facture, as will be seen by the following letter from 
Mr. Spooner to Mr. Loring : — 




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"Plymouth, March 8, 1825. 
"Caleb Loring, Esq., 

"Sir, — Yours of the fifth inst. is received, and in 
replv would observe that I am not conscious of any 
delay in the Ropewalk concern. It is true that I 
thought to make cordage in the month of December ; 
and I afterward was well satisfied with the further 
time as stated by the visiting committee, believing it 
sufiiciently ample ; the work of preparing the Rope- 
walk seem'd a small thing, but, besides materials, I 
have found it necessary to employ sometimes twelve 
mechanics. 

" And this part of the work has no more than kept 
pace with the machines, which are now nearly com- 
pleted. I am willing to believe that such a man as I 
could name, would have made cordage in this Rope- 
walk two months ago, and I as much believe that the 
extra expense would have far exceeded its advantages ; 
our expense will be more than I could wish and shall 
state the result as soon as practicable. Respecting 
the Hemp on hand to which you have alluded, my 
impression was that the probability of its rise in value, 
rather than the immediate requirement of the Factory, 
was the cause of that fortunate purchase. In v/hat I 
have done or left undone, I can offer no other apology 
than that my best ability has been and is, zealously 
employed in the company's service, without being un- 
mindful of the capital engaged. We are now nearly 
ready for a beginning. I shall advertise cordage in 
next ' Memorial ' (Plymouth paper) and make some 
within a fortnight — -probably twenty tons or more 
next month if ordered. As many bills are due, your 



12 P lymouth Cordage Company 

compliance with the annexed receipr by a check as 
heretofore will much oblige, 

- "Yours Respectfully, 

" Bourne Spooner." 

Store In building the store previously mentioned, it was 
intended the employees should purchase their supplies 
there for the most part, and the amount purchased 
taken out of their pay, thus receiving part groceries 
and part money. Rum and other liquors seem to be 
conspicuous among the items ; for instance, one man's 
account runs something like this : — 



1826 

Aug. 1st, to ^ gall, rum 

2nd, '* I 

'' 4th, *« I 

5th, " I 

loth, " I 

'' 2ISt, " I 



molasses 
rum . 



.24 
.48 
.40 
.48 
.48 
.48 



and another like this : — 



1825 
Aug. 1st, Yz gal. N. E. Rum 
4 lbs. Coffee at 22 
" loth, I bbl. cider 
*' 1 6th, 2 lbs. raisins 
** 17th, I gal. molasses 
2 oz. nutmegs 
" 1 8th, ^ bu. salt . 
" 19th, y^ lb. tea 

i^ gal. brandy 
I " molasses 
" 23rd, y^ doz. plates 



25 

88 

33 
25 
45 
28 

75 
33 
75 
45 
38 



Plymouth Cordage Company 13 

It is interesting to note the price of some of the other 
goods at this time : — . 

Flour, six dollars and twenty-five cents per barrel, q"*^^ 

Corn, one dollar per bushel. ^°°^ 

White sugar, eighteen cents per pound. 

Common sugar, ten and eleven cents per pound. 

Butter, nineteen cents per pound. 

Wages of hand spinners during this period w^ere one 
dollar sixteen and two-thirds cents, and common 
laborers, eighty-three and one-third cents. 

Among the first purchases was sloop " Hector," by Transportation 
which the rope used to be sent to Boston. Delivery 
to towns as far away as New Bedford was made 
by ox team. I have here an itemized account of 
the receipts and expenditures from Nov. 12, 1824, 
to August, 1825, in Mr. Spooner's handwriting, 
which, to the management of the present day, is very 
interesting, and shows an inventory of stock on hand, 
of ;gi2,707.20. 

On Sept. 9y 1824, Mr. Amasa Bartlett came here 
as bookkeeper and time-keeper, and continued in 
the employ of this company until his death Feb. 25, 
1867. He lived in the house near the bridge. 

The first pay roll we have in the office is dated pay^jou 
October, 1825, in which we find some names still 
familiar to many of us : Charles Goodwin, Charles 
Cobb, Jr., Winsor Savery, James Kennedy, John 
Osgood. 

We are fortunate to have with us to-day Mr. John 
Smith, who is well known to the most of us, and 
whose name appears among our employees, in 1829. 
On Dec. i, 1830, under the head of " Sunday School 
Premiums, paid to the good boys," among others we 



14 P ly mouth Cordage Company 

find the name of John Smith as receiving seventy- 
five cents. In a letter written by Mr. Spooner in 
February, 1839, we find Mr. Smith's name mentioned 
as having served his time. Mr. John Donley entered 
our employ in 1830. He, too, was one of the good 
Sunday-school boys who received fifty-cent premiums. 
He v/as continually with us up to within three years, 
having been in the employ of the company sixty-six 
years, when he felt obliged to give up work on account of 
advanced age, and passed away only a few weeks ago. 

Among many it is thought that girls were not em- 
ployed by the Plymouth Cordage Company until a 
recent date; but that is an error, for under date of 
Dec. 4, 1838, I find that Mr. Spooner wrote to Mr. 
Loring as follows : — 

" Our new spinning concern has consumed more 
time in the work of preparation than was expected, 
but we are now ready — this being the second day 
of steam spinning. We have two females from Mr. 
Day's factory ; all other new operatives must of 
course be taught to spin ; hence the progress of get- 
ting under weigh will be very gradual. This, as I 
presume, sir, you are aware, is with manila only. 
Mr. Day has not yet applied his spinning principles to 
the working of Russia Hemp, nor perfected his adap- 
tion thereto, but thinks it will soon be cornpleted. It 
affords me much gratification to say that everything 
connected with this enterprise has gone comfortably 
on, and my faith in the utility and expediency of the 
measure is unabated." ... 

There are still living in this vicinity women who in 
their younger days were employed in the mill as 
spinners. 



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Plymouth Cordage Company 15 

Our early records fail to give us the desired informa- ^"j^^^^j^ 
tion in regard to the hours of labor. It is generally 
understood that, in the early days of the company, men 
were expected to make long days, and I have heard 
-some of the older ones speak of the hours as being from 
sun to sun, and I think it must have been during this 
period that Mr. Spooner met with a singular experience. 
One morning while going through the rope-walk 
before daylight, he came in contact with some moving 
object ; but it was so dark he could not see what it 
was, but upon asking who was there, was informed 
that it was John Mange. Mr. Spooner very quickly 
remarked, " John Mange, you are late." I am not 
going to vouch for the truthfulness of this story, but 
it goes to illustrate the number of hours that the men 
were expected to work. 

In the early fifties the question of making shorter 
days was freely discussed, and I well remember as a 
small boy going to meetings that were held in the 
evening in the little schoolhouse opposite Mr. Hedge's, 
where the men gathered to freely express their views, 
and worked faithfully to bring about a time-table that 
should be satisfactory to the employer as well as to the 
employee. The following is the result of their 
deliberations : — 

"Rules of Work, in 1852 or 1853. 

" Commence work from the 21st of March to the 
20th of April at ten minutes before sunrise, going out 
to breakfast at thirty minutes past seven o'clock; again 
commencing work at fifteen minutes past eight, going 
out to dinner at one o'clock. Again commencing at 
two, and leaving off at six o'clock p. m. From the 



i6 P lymouth Cordage Company 

20th April to the 20th August, Commence work at 
five o'clock A. M., going out to breakfast at seven, 
again commencing at fifteen minutes to eight, going 
out to dinner at one, commencing again at two, and leav- 
ing off work at six o'clock p.m. From the 20th August 
to the 2 1 St September, commence work at ten minutes 
before sunrise, going out to breakfast at thirty minutes 
past seven, again commencing at fifteen minutes past 
eight, going out to dinner at one, commencing again 
at two, and leaving off work at six o'clock p. m." 

"From the 21st September to the 21st March, 
breakfast will be taken before going to work, going 
out to dinner at twelve o'clock, commencing work 
ten minutes before one, and leaving off work at eight 
minutes past sunset. The Boston Almanac to be 
used as a guide for time." 

Although the hours seem to us at the present time 
to be unreasonably long, yet the men felt that good 
progress had been made, and were apparently well 
pleased with the result. 

These were the rules that were in force when I 
entered the employ of the Plymouth Cordage Com- 
pany, March 28, 1859. 

It is interesting to note that the hours of labor dur- 
ing the summer months were very much longer than 
those during the winter, and to us at the. present time 
it seems a very curious fact that the wages were just 
the same for the long days as for the short ones. 
Many of us are aware that, as a rule, the mill ran 
quite steadily during the summer months, when we had 
to work the longest hours, but that it was not uncom- 
mon to be put on half time during the winter ; in fact, 
this was generally the case, the exception being only 




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P lymouth Cordage Company 17 

in case of a drive in the cordage business, which was 
none too common during those winter months. 

It was the custom every fall to decide how low the 
thermometer should stand to make it too cold to work ; 
but it may now seem to be a curious fact that if 
orders came in fairly well the men could stand several 
degrees more of cold than they could when business was 
dull. This may seem to have been a sharp practice 
on the part of the management of the company ; but, 
on the other hand, the men were not far behind in 
working their little scheme, for several of those pres- 
ent can well remember that it was a common practice 
early in the morning to huddle around the thermom- 
eter, each one anxiously looking at it, and in doing 
so would naturally breathe upon the glass, and thus 
bring it above the point previously established as being 
too cold to work, so that by the time the superinten- 
dent looked at it, it would often show several degrees 
higher than it was a few moments later. Such days 
were called banyarn days. 

Changes were made at intervals until 1892, when 
the present rules were adopted, which are as follows : 
From 6.30 A. M. to 12 M., I p. M. to 6 p. m. five 
days, and 6.30 to 12 m. on Saturdays, from March ist 
to December ist. The other three months commence 
at 7 A. M. and work from i to 4 o'clock on Saturday 
afternoons, making fifty-eight hours per week in each 
case. 

The night gang works from 6 P. m. to 5 a. m. 
without a stop, five nights per week, making the 
actual working time fifty-five hours j but for this they 
are paid the same as the day gang working fifty-eight 
hours. 



i8 P ly mouth Cordage Company 

The matter of watching the property was also 
looked after in the early days. Under date of Dec. 4, 
1835, we find a memorandum reading as follows: 
"Agreed with Robert Wadsworth for him to keep 
watch, himself or his sons, beginning to-night, with 
dog and gun, at one dollar for night and one dollar 
for Sundays." 

We find the matter of education received especial 
attention during the early years of the company, as 
the following memorandum would indicate : " Dec. 9, 
1839, it was agreed with Mr. Kneeland to keep an 
evening school at twelve dollars per month, to be fur- 
nished with fire, lights, etc., without cost to Mr. 
Kneeland." 
Purchase The question of supplies, particularly the purchase 
- enip^£. j^gj^p^ j^^g aivi^ays been a perplexing one. I well 
remember during my early connection with the com- 
pany, conversations in the office about like this : Mr. 
Spooner would say to Mr. Bartlett, " Uncle Amasa, 
what do you think of manila hemp ? " And after a 
discussion of some minutes he would say to Mr. 
Damon, " What do you think of it ? " Then after 
further discussion he would step to the window to see 
what the prospects were of its being fair weather on 
the morrow, and remark, if it should be pleasant he 
thought he would take the nine o'clock train for 
Boston, and see what he could get five hundred bales for. 

Since those days the telegraph and telephone have 
come into such free use, that it is no uncommon 
occurrence for us to get the markets of the world 
on Monday before 12 o'clock, and frequently have 
thousands of bales of hemp offered to us by telephone, 
and subject to immediate reply. 




Nathan Cooley Keep 
President, 1867-1875 



P lymouth Cordage Company 

My first desk was a small washstand, such as used 
to be furnished with a cheap chamber set. After a 
time I became very much dissatisfied with it, and in 
looking about found in what was then called the " old 
office" (originally a grist-mill), an old pine desk, and 
I asked the privilege of having that fixed up for my 
use. The result was it was painted and grained, and 
it would be hard to find a happier boy than I when 
first using that desk. This I was eventually allowed 
to buy, paying one dollar for it, and it is still in my 
possession. It is needless to add this desk is not now 
for sale. 

As an illustration of the rigid economy that was 
practised during the early days of the company, I re- 
member one day in trying to clear up the closet in the 
office, I came across something that seemed to me 
worthless, but before throwing it away, I thought it 
best to refer the matter to Mr. Bartlett. To my 
surprise, I found that it was originally a ball of twine 
that became hopelessly tangled, and instead of its being 
thrown away, it had been used by Mr. Spooner a 
number of years as a chair cushion. 

Now in closing I want to express to you, Mr. 
President, and to the Board of Directors of the 
Plymouth Cordage Company, my sincere thanks for 
the confidence you have always placed in me, and the 
hearty manner in which your Board approved of the 
recommendations I have made from time to time in 
regard to conducting this business. This has given 
me courage to do all in my power for the advance- 
ment of the best interest of the company. And 
equally hearty are my thanks to the employees for 
their loyalty and faithful services and general interest. 



20 P lymouth Cordage Compa,ny 

They always have seemed to remember that the suc- 
cess of the company means their success, to realize 
that quality of work is the first consideration, and to 
understand that the natural result of producing the 
best goods possible means steady employment. In 
this respect I think no treasurer and general manager 
has been more favored than I, and I thank you one 
and all. 

HISTORICAL ADDRESS BY 
HON. GEORGE G. CROCKER 

In 1824, the second term of James Monroe as 
President was drawing to a close. The population 
of the United States was about 10,000,000. Most 
prominent in the councils of the national government 
were John Quincy Adams, the then Secretary of 
State, who was to become by election of the House 
of Representatives the next President, and Daniel 
Webster, who had just returned to the House of 
Representatives after a seven years' absence, who was 
Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and whose 
position in politics was that of an independent. 

The excitement over the slavery question, which 
had been intense a few years before, had been some- 
what allayed by the Missouri Compromise, and under 
the surface was to fester for a generation, until the 
sore should finally break in war between the North 
and the South. 

At that time, as of late years, Greece was strug- 
gling with its Turkish oppressor, and, as if in re- 
hearsal of ancient history, Ulysses, Commander of 
the Macedonians, having from his encampment 
on Mount Olympus summoned his countrymen 




John Augustus Dodd 
President, 1875-1890 



Ply mouth Cordage C ompany 21 

to strike for liberty, had won a victory at famous 
Thermopylae. 

Those were the days of canals. The Middlesex 
Canal, from the Merrimac at Lowell to tide water 
at Boston, had been completed in 1803, and the great 
Erie Canal, which was to accomplish the marvellous 
result of reducing the cost of transporting a barrel of 
flour from Buffalo to Albany from one hundred dollars 
to ten dollars, was nearly completed. It was opened in 
1825. The projects of a canal through Cape Cod 
and a canal through the Isthmus of Panama were 
under active discussion. 

In those days, as now, the country had its compli- 
cations with Spain. After years of negotiations and 
diplomacy a treaty with Spain had been ratified by 
which the United States acquired possession of the 
Floridas. 

Cuba, also, was then, as now, a subject of anxiety 
and of political discussion. The rumor that England 
had designs on Cuba had led Calhoun to urge that 
our country should prevent England from taking it by 
seizing it itself. In 1826 Senator John Randolph of 
Virginia, in a debate in which the importance of Cuba 
as a key to the Gulf of Mexico was discussed, cried 
out : " If all constitutional restraints are to be pushed 
aside, let us take Cuba and be done with it." We of 
to-day may well say with Macbeth : " If it were 
done when 't is done, then 't were well it were done 
quickly." 

It was in December, 1823, at the opening of the 
first session of the Eighteenth Congress that the Presi- 
dent's message set forth the principles which have 
since become famous as the Monroe Doctrine. 



22 P lymouth Cordag'e Company 

There were two great industrial questions before 
the country : one was as to the extent to which in- 
ternal improvements, such as canals and highways, 
should be carried on at the expense and under the 
auspices of the national government. Upon this 
question the President showed his usual good judg- 
ment. By vetoing a bill for repairing the great Cum- 
berland road he saved his country from entering upon 
a ruinous policy, and he set forth his reasons in a 
document so clear, complete, and forcible that it may 
be said to have established the principles for which he 
contended. 

The other great industrial question was that of 
free trade and protection. They had it then as we 
have it now. The arguments and shibboleths heard 
to-day are the same with which the people of those 
days were familiar. 

The year 1824 was famous on account of the 
return to this country of* General Lafayette. He 
arrived in New York on the 15th day of August, and, 
leaving New York on the 20th, arrived in Boston 
four days later, on the 24th. It was in a poem of 
welcome to him that Charles Sprague wrote the 
memorable lines : — 

" We bow not the neck, 
We bend not the knee. 
But our hearts, Lafayette, ' 
We surrender to thee." 

Massachusetts Coming now to our own state, William Eustis was 
the Governor, having defeated Harrison Gray Otis at 
the election in 1823. The people were as much 
wrought up then over public questions and elections 




Caleb William Loring 
President, 1890-1897 



P lymouth Cordage Company 23 

as they are now. If anything, the battles of parties 
were more acrimonious. The Legislature of Massa- 
chusetts presented John Quincy Adams to the coun- 
try as a candidate for the next President. The other 
leading candidates were Crawford and Jackson and 
Clay. The state, and the nation as well, were seething 
with politics. 

Plymouth had a population of about 4500. Itin'^^4"*** 
was therefore something more than half as large as at 
present. Relatively it was a more important place 
than it is to-day. In those days to be on a harbor or 
a river was essential to the prosperity of a town. 

It was in 1824 that the corner-stone of Memorial 
Hall was laid. The town was, of course, very differ- 
ent in appearance from what it is to-day, and the 
habits of its people were different. 

Two lines from an account of the celebration of 
the two hundred and fourth birthday of New England, 
on the 22nd of December, 1824, are suggestive: 

" The evening preceding was pleasant, and lights 
were placed in the windows to prevent accidents, and 
had the effect of a general illumination." 

There is probably no one thing which will better 
picture the times to the imagination than a description 
of the means of transportation. Stages ran regularly 
between Boston and New York, leaving Boston at 
three o'clock in the morning. 

Josiah Quincy, writing of a trip from Boston to 
New York, which he made in 1825 with Judge Story 
of the United States Supreme Court, closes as fol- 
lows : — 

" It seemed quite incredible : We had left Boston 
early Friday morning, had driven all the way, and 



24 P lymouth Cordage Company 

here we were Monday evening actually dining in New 
York. It need not be said that we congratulated our- 
selves upon Jiving in the days of rapid communication, 
and looked with commiseration upon the condition of 
our fathers, who were wont to consume a whole week 
travelling between the cities." 

There was a regular line of stages from Boston to 
Sandwich, the running time of which between Boston 
and Plymouth was something over six hours. The 
advertisement of this line, as it appeared on the 24th 
of November, 18 10, runs as follows: — 

Boston, Plymouth, & Sandwich Mail Stage, continues to 
run as follows — Leaves Boston every Tuesday, Thursday, 
and Saturday mornings at 5.00 o'clock, breakfast at Leonard's, 
Scituate; dine at Bradford's, Plymouth; and arrive in Sand- 
wich the same evening. Leaves Sandwich every Monday, 
Wednesday, and Friday mornings; breakfast at Bradford's, 
Plymouth; dine at Leonard's, Scituate; and arrive in Boston 
the same evening. Passing through Dorchester, Quincy, 
Weymouth, Hingham, Scituate, Hanover, Pembroke, Dux- 
bury, Kingston, Plymouth to Sandwich. Fare from Boston 
to Scituate, l dollar 25 cents; from Boston to Plymouth, 2 
dollars 50 cents; from Boston to Sandwich, 3 dollars 63 
cents. 

N. B. Extra carriages can be obtained of the proprietors 
at Boston and Plymouth at short notice. 

Stage books kept at Boy den's. Market Square, Boston, and 
at Fessendon's, Plymouth. 
Boston, November 24, 1 8 10. 

Leonard & Woodward. 

The following is an advertisement which appeared 
in the "Old Colony Memorial & Plymouth County 
Advertiser" on Aprir24, 1824: — 




Caleb Loring 
Treasurer, 1824-1834 



P lymouth Cordage Company 25 



BOSTON AND PLYMOUTH. 

(picture.) 
ACCOMMODATION STAGE. 

The subscribers would inform their friends and the public 
that they will on Monday the 19th inst. commence running 
an accommodation stage in the following manner, viz. : to leave 
Plymouth every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, at half 
past seven a. m., and arrive in Boston the same day to dine. 
— To leave Boston every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday 
at 8 A. M., and arrive at Plymouth to dine. 

The proprietors have provided themselves with experi- 
enced drivers and excellent horses and carriages, and can 
assure those who may favor them with their patronage, that 
nothing shall be wanting on their part, for their safety and 
accommodation, and that all commissions entrusted to them 
will be executed with fidelity and punctuality. Fare through 
$2.50. 

Books kept at S. Hamiltons, City Hotel, Elm Street, Bos- 
ton, and at the Old Colony Hotel, Plymouth. 

B. CusHiNG, Jr., & Co. 

Stages were not, however, the only method of 
communication with Boston. It appears from the 
papers of those days that packets ran to and from 
Boston about twice a week. 

It was not until 1845 (twenty-one years later) 
that the railroad was opened to Plymouth. 

Immediately after the close of the War of 1 8 1 2, ^^eafures 
there had been in this country great industrial depres- ^^""^^ 
sion, owing to large importations of English manufac- 
tures. The manufacturing interests of this country 
which had thrived during the continuance of the war 



26 P ly mouth Cordage Company 

were threatened with ruin. They demanded a tariff 
for their protection, while the planting and commercial 
interests advocated the doctrine of free trade. Massa- 
chusetts' chief interest at that time was in its com- 
merce, and Massachusetts was for free trade. In 
Congress the protectionists carried the day, and tariff 
acts were passed in 1816, 18 18, and 18 19. 

By these acts the duty on cordage was fixed at 
three cents per pound for tarred cordage, and four 
cents per pound for untarred cordage, and the benefit 
of this tariff was somewhat diminished by a duty on 
unmanufactured hemp of one dollar and fifty cents per 
hundredweight. This latter duty was imposed with 
the idea of encouraging the raising of hemp in this 
country. In 1832 the importation of hemp was made 
free, a duty being reimposed in 1846. 

In January, 1824, a new tariff bill, increasing the 
duties over what they had been previously, was re- 
ported in the House of Representatives by Mr. Todd 
of Pennsylvania. After a long contest it was carried by 
a bare majority in each branch, and became a law on the 
22nd of May. The vote of the Massachusetts delega- 
tion was eleven to one in opposition to the bill, Mr. 
Webster being one of those who voted in the nega- 
tive. By this act the duty on tarred cordage was 
raised to four cents per pound, and on untarred cord- 
age to five cents per pound, and the duty on unmanu- 
factured hemp was fixed at thirty-five- dollars per 
ton. 

The passage of this act not improbably determined 
the birth of the Plymouth Cordage Company. 

That the protective acts had already produced good 
results is shown by the following eloquent passage 




James Harris 
Treasurer, 1834-1837 



Plymouth Cordage Company 27 

from the oration of Edward Everett, then a professor 
at Harvard, delivered in Plymouth at the two hundred 
and fourth anniversary in December, 1824 : — 

" Within a few years what a happy change has 
talcen place. The substantial clothing of our indus- 
trious classes is now the growth of the American soil 
and the texture of the American loom ; the music of 
the water wheel is heard on the banks of one thous- 
and rural streams, and enterprise and skill with wealth, 
refinement, and prosperity m their wake, having studded 
the seashore with populous cities, are making their 
great progress, of improvement through the interior, 
and sowing towns and villages as it were broadcast 
through the country." 

From James Thacher's " History of Plymouth," 
published in 1832, it appears that the manufactories in 
Plymouth at about this time consisted of a rolling mill 
.and nail factory, a cotton mill, a rope-walk, and a 
twine and line factory. 

The rope-walks in Boston had been havinp; a hard Early 

° Cordage 

time. Seven at the North End had been destroyed Manufactories 
by fire in 1794, after which they were obliged to 
remove to the marshes west of the Common. Those 
which were built there were destroyed in 1806, and 
some were rebuilt and destroyed again in 1819, and 
it was in 1824 that Mayor Quincy caused them all to 
be removed from the marshes at an expense to the 
city of fifty-five thousand dollars. 

The special difficulties of the Boston rope-walks 
perhaps further encouraged Bourne Spooner in his 
scheme to establish a cordage company in Plymouth. 

By an act of the Legislature (Statutes 1824, 
chap. 21), which was signed by the Governor on 



28 P lymouth Cordage Company 

°fH"'mou°hJ""^ ^^> 1824, Bourne Spooner, William Lovering, 
Com*^an^i^*' J°^" Dodd, John Russell, and their associates 
were incorporated as the Plymouth Cordage Company 
for the purpose of manufacturing cordage. 

The first meeting of the corporation was held in 
the counting room of John Dodd, 118 State Street, 
on August 9, 1824. At that meeting there were 
present William Lovering, Jr., C. C. Nichols, John 
Dodd, and Bourne Spooner. They elected Bourne 
Spooner clerk pro tem.^ and a committee was appointed 
to draft By-Laws. 

On August II, 1824, the second meeting was 
attended by those present at the first meeting, and 
also by Caleb Loring, Charles G. Loring, Charles F. 
Kupfer, and Thomas L Lobdell. Charles G. Loring 
was elected clerk of the corporation, Caleb Loring, 
treasurer, and Caleb Loring, William Lovering, Jr., 
John Dodd, David Low, and Bourne Spooner, 
directors. 

At the first meeting of the directors, which was 
held at the counting house of John Dodd on August 
26, 1824, Bourne Spooner was appointed as agent, 
and was authorized to construct a rope-walk, wharf, 
storehouse, and other buildings, and to contract for 
machinery, tools, etc. He was also authorized, at a 
cost not exceeding eighteen hundred dollars, to erect 
a dwelling house for his own occupation, the rental 
of which was to be one hundred dollars per annum, 
and his salary was fixed at eleven hundred dollars. 

By deed dated August 21, 1824, and recorded on the 
1 7th of September, Bourne Spooner, rope-maker, con- 
veyed to the company, for the consideration of twelve 
hundred dollars, Jackson's grist mill on the farm of 




Bourne Spooner 
Treasurer, 1837-1870 



P lymouth Cordage Company 29 

Barnabas Hedge, with the right of raising the dam, 
also the rope-walk lot, also the right of a cart-way 
from the main or county road through gates or bars 
by the south end of the dwelling house on said farm 
to the head house of said rope-walk and to the dam: 
also a cart-way from the said head house and dam 
to the yarn and tar house, which may be connected 
with said rope-walk : also a certain ancient mill priv- 
ilege where formerly stood a saw-mill, on the westerly 
side of the road leading from Plymouth to Kingston. 

On Feb. 8, 1825, a committee consisting of John 
Russell and Bourne Spooner was authorized to pur- 
chase a vessel, or at least a two-thirds interest in a 
vessel, for the use of the corporation, provided that the 
whole cost should not exceed two thousand dollars. 
In December, 1825, the directors were authorized - 
to erect a block of six houses for the occupation of 
the workmen. 

Such was the beginning of our company. Bourne 
Spooner was the leading spirit in it. He had but a 
small stream, hardly more than a brook, to furnish the 
water and the power. He could not have had great 
expectations of future growth. His hopes were not 
like the hopes of those who started mills at the great 
water powers of Lowell and of Lawrence. 

The original capital stock of the company was Capital 
twenty thousand dollars, full payment of which was 
made within one year from the date of organization. 
This capital was increased by small amounts at short 
intervals until March, 1826, when it had risen to 
forty-four thousand dollars. 

By successive steps in 1833, 1850, 1855, 1863, 
and 1883 the capital stock was further increased to 



so P lymouth Cordage Company 

five hundred thousand dollars ; but all the funds for 
these last five additions were provided by special 
dividends of profits, so that in a period of fifty years, 
from 1833 to 1883, each single share of stock, v^ith- 
out any new capital being paid in, had grown into 
eleven and four-eleventh's shares. 

In 1894 the capital stock was doubled, being 
increased to one million dollars. 

This increase was all new capital furnished by the 
stockholders, not out of a dividend of profits, but out 
of their own pockets. 

This additional capital was needed to handle 
properly and safely a business which in ten years had 
more than trebled in amount. 

In doubling the capital stock, every stockholder was 
entitled to subscribe for one new share for each share 
previously held by him. That the corporation stood 
well in the estimation of the community, was shown 
by the fact that people were willing, even in the hard 
times of 1894, to pay fifty dollars for each right to 
take a new share at par. 
Dividends Xhe first dividend was paid in 1832, seven and 
one-half years after the organization of the company. 

Since then, with the exception of three years, 1839, 
1843, ^"^ 1858, one or more dividends have been 
paid every year. During the last forty years, no 
single year has passed without something to gladden 
the heart of the stockholder. 

It must not be inferred from this statement that 
the management of the company has not been con- 
servative. Had it not been conservative, disaster 
would ere this have overcome us as it has many of our 
competitors. The amount which has been distributed 



Charles Walter Spooner 
Treasurer, 1870-1882 



Plymouth Cordage Company 31 

in dividends is less than one half of our total profits. 
So much which has been expended for construction 
has been charged to current expenses, and so much 
has been allowed for depreciation, that at the present 
day our whole plant — the factory, the machinery in it, 
the rope-walk, storehouses, machine shop, the engines 
and boilers and their housings, the office building and 
the tenements — stand on our books at only ^5 1 5,750, 
which is less than this new factory with the machin- 
ery and power house will cost. 

We have had plenty of so-called healthy com peti- competition 
tion. At times it has been so severe that it has 
ruined company after company, and has threatened 
ruin to all. 

Just before the outbreak of the War of the Rebellion, 
prices had been cut down to such an extent that a ■ 
conference of representatives of all the leading manu- 
factories in this part of the country was called. 
Early in 1861 an agreement for the regulation of 
prices v/as entered into, but was soon found not to be 
sufficiently iron-clad. It was amended from time to 
time, in the attempt to prevent specious evasions and 
downright violations of its terms, but was finally dis- 
carded, and as a substitute for it the " pool system " Pools 
was, in 1878, established. By the pool system each combinations 
company was allotted a certain percentage of the 
total business, and returns of sales were made each 
month to a central bureau. If a company sold more 
than its percentage, it was obliged to pay into the 
pool a certain sum for each pound of such excess. 
This payment was changed from time to time, but 
was never more than two cents per pound. The 
money in the pool was then distributed among the 



32 Plymouth Cordage Company 

companies which did less than their percentage of the 
whole business. The allotment of our company was 
about ten or eleven per cent, and as a rule we over- 
ran it. We felt that the pool would not be perma- 
nent, and we wanted to have as large a business as 
possible when it went to pieces. Some of the com- 
panies closed their factories and made their dividends 
out of the amounts received from the pool. In a 
most unexpected way, the pool proved to be of special 
benefit to our company. On the night of Jan. 3, 
1885, we were visited by a disastrous fire, the second 
in the history of the company, the first having been 
in 1866. Our works were badly crippled. The 
directors afterwards supplemented the work of the 
fire by tearing down some of the buildings which it 
had spared, thus clearing a space sufficient for the 
erection of our great modern factory building, on the 
west side of the railroad. While construction was 
going on, our product was necessarily much reduced, 
and had it not been for the pool our profits would 
have been little or nothing. Thanks to the pool, 
from which we received one or two cents per pound 
for every pound which we fell short of our allotment, 
we were able even in that year to make a good-sized 
dividend. We had barely got our new factory in 
working order when, in 1887, after a troubled life of 
nine years, the pooling system was discarded. 

A movement was then started in New York to 
put a stop to ruinous competition by means of a grand 
combination. The plan was to buy up and consoli- 
date into one great company the leading cordage 
factories, and at the same time to corner and control 
the hemp market. An attempt was made to secure a 




Gideon Francis Holmes 

Treasurer, elected 1882 



P lymouth Cordage Company zz 

majority interest in our stock ; and it was represented 
to our stockholders that the economies in the manage- 
ment of the huge combination, and its control of the 
hemp market, would be such that our company as a 
separate concern could not successfully compete with 
it, and that, if we were not taken into the combination, 
we would soon be forced to the wall. This idea was 
also diligently circulated among our employees, who 
naturally became alarmed lest the factory might be 
closed and they be thrown out of work. Some of 
them left us and transferred their allegiance to the 
combination, — the National Cordage Company. 

Your directors, by an investigation into the finan- 
cial status and methods of the National Company, 
became convinced that it would not compass the 
economies in manufacture which had been prom- 
ised, that it had undertaken a great deal more than it 
could accomplish, and that it would soon become 
involved in financial embarrassment. They recom- 
mended to the stockholders that the control of their 
stock should be placed in the hands of three trustees, 
with authority to take such action for the protection 
of the corporation and of their interests in it as they 
should seem to be expedient. A majority of the stock 
was quickly secured. Under these circumstances the 
directors ordered a notice to be posted in the factory, 
assuring the employees that the control of the com- 
pany had not changed, and that in their opinion there 
was no factory in the country more sure than ours of 
being operated without intermission. 

As no satisfactory offer for our property was 
received by the trustees, we are still struggling along 
as an independent corporation. 
3 



34 P lymouth Cordage Company 

Events have shown that the position taken by the 
directors was well justified. 

Whereas many of the factories which were swal- 
lowed up by the National Company have been closed, 
our company has had enough business to keep it run- 
ning all the time, has even been obliged part of the 
time to run by night as well as by day, and the de- 
mand for its product now so far exceeds its capacity 
that it has been led to build what may conservatively 
be called quite a good-sized addition. 

In 1893, six years from the date of its organiza- 
tion, the National Company passed into the hands of 
receivers. From its wreck the United States Cordage 
Company arose, and this also, two years later, took 
the same course. 

Then there was another re-organization under the 
name of the Standard Rope and Twine Company, 
and this great company, with a capital as represented 
by stock and bonds of over twenty-two million dol- 
lars, is now one of our competitors. 
Financial While the Company has in hard times escaped 

Vicissitudes ^ •' _ ^ 

ruin, it has not passed through them without troubles 
which have severely tested its financial strength and 
the ability of its officers. Of the earlier experiences 
no record is left ; a late experience is, however, well 
remembered. There was great business depression in 
1893. Farmers out West wanted binder twine as 
much as ever, but after they had got -it and given 
their notes for it, they could not pay. So it happened 
that a great Mowing and Reaping Machine Company, 
the credit of which had been undoubted, and which 
had bought large quantities of twine from us, was 
unable to collect from the farmers to whom the twine 




o _- 



"5) I 

c 
W 



P lymouth Cordage Company 35 

had been sold, and could not pay our company as 
agreed. Thus in the midst of a financial panic, when 
money was scarce, and the banks had been led by sad 
experience to scrutinize with suspicion every applica- 
tion for a loan, our company suddenly found that 
over five hundred thousand dollars which it had 
counted on as cash to carry on its business was not 
forthcoming. This sum was greater than the whole 
capital stock of the company. Nobody could tell 
how much, if anything, of this debt of over five 
hundred thousand dollars, our consignee would event- 
ually be able to pay. It was not the time for a cor- 
poration to borrow five hundred thousand dollars 
more than its ordinary requirements. If the money 
could not be borrowed, our company too would be 
obliged to ask for an extension or shut up the factory. 
The money was borrowed, but not until our late Presi- 
dent, Mr. C. W. Loring, and two directors and the 
treasurer had made themselves personally responsible 
for the debt by indorsing the notes of the company. 

In the early part of the century, cordage was The 
generally made entirely by hand. There was a long 
rope-walk. Its length determined the possible length 
of the rope that could be made in it. Walking back- 
ward through this rope-walk was a man with a great 
wad of hemp wound around his waist, which he paid out 
as it was twisted into rope by a boy turning a wheel. 

There was, there is still, a certain dreaminess about 
the old rope-walk which Longfellow has happily re- 
corded in his undying verse : — 

*' In that building long and low. 
With its windows all a-row, 
Like the port holes of a hulk. 



3^ P lymouth Cordage Company 

Human spiders spin and spin, 
Backward down their threads so thin 
Dropping, each a hempen bulk. 

" At the end an open door ; 
Squares of sunshine on the floor 
Light the long and dusky lane : 
And the whining of a wheel. 
Dull and drowsy, makes me feel 
All its spokes are in my brain. 

*' As the spinners to the end 
Downward go and re-ascend, 
Gleam the long threads in the sun j 
While within this brain of mine 
Cobwebs brighter and more fine 
By the busy wheel are spun." 

With the poet's pathos, he then describes some of 
the many uses to which the product of the rope-walk 
is put, — the happy children in the swing j the faded 
beauty in spangled dress on the tight rope ; the matron 
drawing water from the well ; the aged sexton ringing 
the church bell at midday ; the murderer and the gal- 
lows ; the schoolboy flying his kite ; the fisherman 
hauling in his line; the ship in the breeze rejoicing or 
in the hurricane dragging its anchor through the faith- 
less sand ; and the deserted wreck. This is the last 

verse : — 

** All these scenes do I behold. 
These, and many left untold, 
In that building long and low ; 
While the wheel goes round and round 
With a drowsy, dreamy sound. 
And the spinners backward go." 

In Thacher's " History," published in 1832, the fol- 
lowing statement is made in relation to the Plymouth 
Cordage Company : — 




Power alley, showing rope drives 



Plymouth Cordage Company 37 

"Their rope-walk is situated in the north part of the town 
near the Kingston line, is three stories high, and is capable of 
employing eighty hands and of making five hundred tons of 
cordage per year. Their cordage is of the patent kind, is in 
high repute, and is laid by water power." 

In a history of the cordage industry of the present 
century, prepared in 1895 by Mr. B. C. Clark, it is 
stated that in those early days, " when rope was made 
without the use of the rope-walk, it was the custom to 
call it '■ patent cordage ' to distinguish it from rope- 
walk rope." 

At first Nathan's brook and another, the name of 
which, if it ever had one, is lost in oblivion, furnished 
the water power, which sometimes reached a maxi- 
mum of twenty horse power. The first engine fur- 
nishing steam power was put in in 1837 ; a second, in 
1839 ; a third, in 1850 ; a fourth, in 1868, and a fifth, 
in 1888. These last two engines are those now in 
the engine room. The engine of 1888 is of fifteen 
hundred horse power. The engine which has been 
ordered for the new factory is to be of sixteen hundred 
horse power. 

The accounts show that in 1827 the sales of cord- 
age amounted to 601,023 pounds. For the year just 
ended, they amount to 19,597,644 pounds, or thirty- 
seven times as much as in 1827. 

It is our practice under the general term cordage to 
include all of our product except binder twine. We 
make some fifty different kinds of lines, twines, cords, 
and ropes, varying in size from the mighty hawser 
fifteen inches in circumference, such as was lately 
used to pull the Maria Theresa off the rocks, to cor- 
set twine, which is said to be used instead of whale- 



38 P lymouth Cordage Company 

bone for the stiffening of corsets. All these varieties 
of cordage, however, make up less than one half of 
our total product. 

In 1882 the company sold its first lot of binder 
twine, 384,820 pounds. Last year it sold 27,905,981 
pounds. This amount, added to the sales of cordage, 
makes a grand total of 47,503,625 pounds, or seventy- 
nine times as much as seventy-two years ago. 

There are a great many cordage companies in the 
country, but the business of our company is estimated 
to be more than one seventh of the whole. 
Employees Xhe number of employees in the first year of 
operation was about thirty-five. To-day it averages 
nine hundred and fifty, of which about seventy-five 
are women and one hundred minors. Thus while 
the product has increased seventy-nine fold, the num- 
ber of employees has increased only twenty-six fold. 
Figuring it out, it will be found that machinery is now 
doing work which, without machinery, if it could be 
done at all, would require 1850 more operatives, or 
two additional for every one we now have. 

Fortunately we are not now left to conjecture as to 
the effect of the introduction and improvement of 
machinery. No wonder that there was bitter opposi- 
tion to the railroad, when it was realized that it would 
supplant the stage-coach, would ruin the wayside inn, 
would take away from the farmer an important 
market for his horses, his hay, and his grain, and 
would throw out of employment many deserving 
drivers and needy hostlers. To-day, however, the 
railroad in the United States gives direct employment 
in round numbers to 875,000 men, and pays out each 
year, in salaries and wages, five hundred million dollars. 




a. 
O 



P lymouth Cordage Company 39 

Indirectly, through its demand for steel, ties, coal, 
masonry, buildings, cars and their fittings, and engines, 
it gives employment to other hundreds of thousands. 
As it is estimated that each wage-earner supports on 
the average four persons besides himself, it is probably 
true that the railroad, directly or indirectly, furnishes 
the means of support to one tenth of the total popula- 
tion of the United States. 

The opponents of the introduction of improved 
machinery look only at immediate effects. They do 
not forecast ultimate results. Most wonderfully are 
the interests of different industries intertwined. The 
development of one in unexpected ways results in the 
development of others whose relationship may never 
have been dreamed of. Sixty years ago the officers 
of our company probably realized that the railroad 
would enable them to reach a wider market with their 
product; but far beyond human foresight was it to con- 
• ceive that, before the close of the century, the railroad, 
supplemented by sowing and reaping machines, would 
render profitable the cultivation of wheat fields in the 
West, so vast in extent that more than one half in 
weight of the total product of our company would go 
simply to bind up the sheaves. 

Labor-saving machinery has been an essential ele- 
ment in bringing about the unequalled progress of the 
century, and experience now proves unmistakably that 
its use has resulted not in a contraction but in an en- 
largement of the field of labor, and has been accom- 
panied by an increase in wages. 

According to the Massachusetts Labor Report of 
1885, the general wages of mill operatives in the New 
England States, between 1831 and. 1880, increased one 



40 P lymouth Cordage Company 

hundred and fifteen per cent, or in other words naore 
than doubled. 

At the same time, the purchasing power of a day's 
wages has also increased. This is especially true 
with reference to articles in the production of which 
machinery is used. Cotton cloth, for example, in 
1830 cost seventeen cents per yard ; to-day, by reason 
of improvements in machinery, the same quality can 
be bought for less than one third as much. 

The movement of advancing wages and diminish- 
ing prices is a movement of civilization, and it is 
through labor-saving machinery that these results have 
been simultaneously accomplished. 

Of this we may be sure, economy in production is 
progress and leads to prosperity, and he who opposes 
it stands as an enemy to the general welfare. 

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts has been 
and is the very hot bed of labor-saving machinery ; 
and there is no place on the face of the earth where 
happiness and comfort are more universal. 

The operatives of the Plymouth Cordage Company 
have long been noted for intelligence, honesty, sobriety, 
industry, and thrift, and for faithfulness to the inter- 
ests of the company. It is no ordinary praise to say 
that they have ever been held in good repute, even in 
this community in which the virtues and the standards 
of the Pilgrim Fathers naturally find their best exem- 
plification. Most of them regard Plymouth as their 
home. . Something over eleven per cent of the men 
who were in the factory forty years ago are with us 
now. A list of twenty-eight overseers and foremen 
has been made up, every one of whom has been with 
the company more than twenty years. 




a 
'Ja 

u 
C c 

.2 « 



?? a. 



Plymouth Cordage Company 41 

This roll of distinguished service is headed by the David Brown 
name of David Brovi^n, who has charge of the spin- 
ning room, who has been with us for forty-seven years, 
and is now seventy-four years old. His son, Robert 
A. Brown, commenced work in the mill when ten^rown 
years of age, working five nights in the week, and, 
with the exception of two years and a quarter which 
he devoted to school, he has completed thirty years of 
service ; and he is now the superintendent of the mill 
and rope-walk, and is the able and valued manager of 
the manufacturing department. 

James Mullins on July 31, 1871, entered the office jamesMuiiins 
of the company as office boy, his special duty being 
to tend the telegraph instrument which had just been 
put in. Next he became weigher, then shipper, then 
general correspondent, and he is now our travelling 
agent. 

John H. Damon, a son of a former employee, who John h. 
afterwards became a director, began work in the 
machine shop fifteen years ago, and is now our master 
mechanic. When a thing needs to be done, he finds 
a way to do it. Difficulties do not dismay him. 
They are something to be overcome, and with inven- 
tive ability he works until he overcomes them. 

John A. Skakle began work in the machine shopjohnA. 
seventeen years ago, and is now our trusted chief ^ ^ 
engineer. 

These few instances, selected from many, must 
suffice. 

The company has reason to be proud of its em- 
ployees, and it is very proud of them. 

In the seventy-five years, there have been only officers 
twenty-eight directors, and as the Board has consisted 



42 P lymouth Cordage Company 

of five members, the average term of service by each 
director has been over thirteen years. 
Presidents At first, in accordance with a By-Law, the senior 
director in point of service acted as the presiding 
officer. This rule was followed until 1867, in which 
year Dr. Nathan Cooley Keep was elected President. 
Dr. Keep had been a stockholder from the year 1828. 
A graduate of the Harvard Medical School, he had 
been a leader in establishing the practice of dentistry 
as a distinct profession. He was widely known for 
inventive genius, mechanical skill, and scientific at- 
tainments. He served through eight years of great 
prosperity, until his death in 1875. He was succeeded 
by John A. Dodd, a merchant of Boston, a son of 
John Dodd, who was one of the original incorporators, 
and also one of the original subscribers to the stock 
of the corporation, and who had served twelve years 
on the Board of Directors. 

President Dodd had the interests of the corporation 
very closely at heart, and zealously protected and 
developed them. After fifteen years of service, he 
died in 1890, and was succeeded by Caleb William 
Loring, who died in 1897. His son, Augustus P. 
Loring, has been President since July, 1897. 

To four generations of the Loring family this com- 
pany is under a great debt of gratitude. From the 
beginning to the present day, without any intermission, 
they have been active in the administration of its 
affairs. 

The first two names on the list of original sub- 
scribers to the stock of the corporation are Caleb 
Loring, the great-grandfather, and Charles G. Loring, 
the grandfather, of your President. Caleb Loring, a 







two '3 

.S 2 

c 

c 

'cL 



P lymouth Cordage Company 43 

merchant of Boston in high standing, was a director 
and treasurer of the corporation for the first ten years 
of its being. 

To live in Boston and to be treasurer was not so 
convenient then as it would be now. It was his 
habit once a month to visit the rope-walk, travelling 
from Boston to Plymouth and back in his own 
carriage. 

Charles G. Loring, the grandfather of our Presi-cierk 
dent, and one of the leaders of the Suffolk bar, was 
clerk of the corporation from 1824 to 183 1, and his 
brother, Francis C. Loring, from 1831 to 1845. 

He was succeeded by Caleb William Loring, the 
father of our President, who served thirty-nine years, 
from 1845 to 1884, and he in turn by his son, who 
served thirteen years, from 1884 to 1897. Thus the 
office of clerk of the corporation from 1824 to 1897, ^ 
period of seventy-three years, was held successively by 
four of members of the Loring family. 

Judging from the past, we can hope for nothing 
better for the company than that this succession of 
the Loring family may continue through the next 
as it has through the present century ; and we may 
well congratulate ourselves that we see here to-day a 
Caleb Loring in the -fifth generation to whom we may 
look to carry on the good work of his fathers. May 
he be imbued with their spirit of devotion to the in- 
terests of the corporation, and with their wisdom of 
judgment. 

Your President has to-day, as a memorial of his 
father, presented to the corporation a beautiful library 
and reading-room. It is a gift which evidences alike 
his filial affection for an honored father, and his own 



44 P ly mouth Cordage Company 

thoughtfulness for the well being of our employees. 
We all thank him. 
Bourne Boume Spooner was born in Plymouth on Feb. 2, 

Spooner t o i. • • i 

1790. In 1812 he was m business in New Orleans, 
and it is said that he was connected with a rope-walk 
there. Undoubtedly he was the organizer of the 
movement to start this company. He was a strong 
man, courageous and persevering ; a strict disciplina- 
rian ; a man who impressed his character and manners 
upon those with whom he came in contact, of most 
positive and often publicly expressed views upon the 
temperance question, and an organizer of temper- 
ance societies ; a man who knew that slavery was 
wrong, who was heart and soul with Garrison and 
Phillips in their attacks upon it, and who read each 
issue of the "Liberator" from beginning to end. He 
was of social disposition and an excellent story teller. 
The air of Plymouth is full of the memories of his 
genial companionship. Of his business ability, the 
remarkable growth and prosperity of the company 
through the forty-six years of his service is proof, than 
which there can be none more convincing. During 
all that time he was our agent, and from 1837 he was 
also treasurer. 
Charles \v. fjg v^as Succeeded by his son, Charles W. Spooner. 

Spooner _ -^ _ ' . *• 

He, too, was faithful, efficient, and wise. I will not 
say that prosperity followed him. He compelled pros- 
perity, as did his father before him. After several 
years of suffering from disease, Charles W. Spooner 
died in 1882, having been agent and treasurer for 
twelve years. 
^H^oimes Gideon F. Holmes was born on Dec. 21, 1843. 
Forty years ago, on March 28, 1859, being then fif- 




a 
IS 

o 

as 



«S 



P lymout h Cordage Company 45 

teen years of age, he began his service for the Ply- 
mouth Cordage Company at fifty cents a day. His 
duties were to be on hand at half-past five in the 
morning, build the fire, and svi^eep and dust the ^office. 
In those days, except for the winter months, the mill 
ran from 5 a. m. to 6 P. m., with three-quarters of an 
hour allowed for breakfast and one hour for dinner. 
In winter, the hours were from 7.35 to 4.25. Young 
Holmes during the day-time made himself generally 
useful as an office boy. He assisted in writing tags 
and in shipping rope. On one occasion when he at- 
tempted to weigh a coil of rope, his superior checked 
his presumption by telling him that that was a very 
important part of the work, and that he must not under- 
take it again. 

For two years, beginning in May, i860, the special 
duty was assigned him of closing the windows in the 
rope-walk after working hours, for which he received 
six and one-fourth cents per night. This was his 
pocket change, which he highly prized. 

In the summer of 1862, he began to have the care 
of the shipment of rope and the making out of in- 
voices. Five years later, he became assistant book- 
keeper, and in the spring of the same year took full 
charge of the books, and continued in charge of them 
for the next eight years. 

In 1875, and from time to time thereafter, in the 
absence of Mr. Spooner, the duties of treasurer and 
agent were thrown upon Mr. Holmes ; and upon the 
death of Mr. Spooner he was, on Sept. 12, 1882, 
elected treasurer. Under his administration, the 
product of the factory has been quadrupled, and after 
seventeen years we are able to say with confidence, 



46 P ly mouth Cordage Company 

and there is no praise which could be more definite 
and positive, that he has proved himself a worthy suc- 
cessor of Bourne Spooner. 

Never before in the history of the company has 
there been so large a profit as in the year which has 
just closed. 

Such prosperity has not been general in the trade. 
The fact is that our treasurer, a year and one-half or 
two years ago, correctly forecast the future, and when 
other treasurers, under the impression that hemp 
would soon fall in price, were buying only for imme- 
diate consumption, he bought, and the credit of the 
company was such that he could buy, a supply for a 
year in advance. He was almost alone in his opinion ; 
but he was right, and it is because he was strong 
enough to be independent, and wise enough to be right, 
that we have received this year an extra dividend of 
ten per cent, and have also laid aside a goodly sum 
to meet the cost of the new construction which we 
have undertaken. 

In those matters which go to promote the well 
being of the employees, Mr. Holmes always takes a 
leading and active interest. 

In building new tenements and improving the old; 
in providing garden plots and establishing a system of 
drainage j in the conduct of the cooking school ; in 
matters relating to the library, — in all things which go 
to promote the social welfare of our little commu- 
nity, he is fruitful of suggestion and thoughtful of 
detail. 
Reputation We have received a great inheritance of success 
and reputation. To continue that success, to pre- 
serve and to increase that reputation, is the duty of 




c 

(J _ 

6 S 

i> .B 

2 S 



P lymouth Cordage Company 47 

those who are to manage this factory during the com- 
ing century. May they study the past, and by its 
lessons be guided in the future. May they adhere 
through all temptation to a conservative financial 
policy. May they never be satisfied with present, but 
always be striving for higher achievement. May 
they continue to make the best cordage in the market, 
so that our product in the future as in the past shall 
be recognized as the standard by which other cordage 
is to be judged. 

The location of our works is a pleasant one. This Location 
is a good place in which to live. The winters are 
not severe, and the heat of the summer is often tem- 
pered by breezes from the sea. With the woods 
bounding us on one side, and the harbor on the other, 
we have pure air and a variety of outdoor recreation. 
The man who wants a life of excitement will not find 
it in Plyniouth ; but the moral and mental tone of the 
town is pitched to a good key. It is something to be 
free from the temptations with which life in large 
cities is surrounded. The success of a manufacturing 
corporation is not, however, determined by the agree- 
ableness of its location and surroundings. It is safe 
to say that if the founders of our company had 
planned its development into a great factory such as 
now exists, they would not have established it on this 
spot, with an insignificant water power, on a harbor 
which I will not say is poor, but which is not the best, 
and in a location through which passed but little 
trafiic by land. 

The success of our company has not been due to its 
location. It may almost be said that it has been achieved 
in spite of its location. Other corporations much 



48 P ly mouth Cordage Company 

more favorably situated than ours have failed deplor- 
ably. Disaster in some shape has overcome them. 
Even to-day there are cordage factories all over the 
country which are closed because it vi'ill not pay to 
run them. It is probably true that no other large 
cordage factory has had so long a life as ours. Cer- 
tainly ours, in point of unchanged corporate existence, 
is the oldest. 

Our success has been due not to exceptional oppor- 
tunities, nor to chance, but it has been due to the men 
who have had charge of our affairs, and who have 
carried on our work ; to the character, the persever- 
ance, the brains, and the devotion of our officers and 
employees, and primarily and principally to the life 
work of Bourne Spooner. 







m 



P lymouth Cordage Company 49 

APPEJ^DIX 

Act of the Legislature t June 12, 1824. 

An Act to incorporate the Plymouth Cordage Company. 

Section i. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of 

Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the_, 

c » / _ Persons 

authority of the same. That Bourne Spooner, William incorporated 
Lovering, Jr., John Dodd, and John Russell, together with 
such others as may be associated with them, and their suc- 
cessors, be, ^and they are hereby made a corporation by the 
name of the Plymouth Cordage Company, for the purpose 
of manufacturing cordage ; and for that purpose shall have powers 
all the powers and privileges, and also be subject to all the privileges, etc. 
duties and requirements prescribed and contained in an Act, 
passed the third day of March, in the year of our Lord one 
thousand eight hundred and nine, entitled "An Act defining 
the general powers and duties of manufacturing Companies," 
and the several Acts in addition thereto. ^^ .^^ 

Sec. 2. Be it further enacted. That the said Corporation "i estate 
may be lawfiilly seized and possessed of such real estate, not 
exceeding the value of twenty thousand dollars, and such 
personal estate, not exceeding the value of sixty thousand 
dollars, as may be necessary and convenient for carrying on 
the manufacture of Cordage. 
(Approved by the Governor, June la, 1824.) 

An Act to authorize the Plymouth Cordage Company to 
increase their Capital Stock. 

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives 1824 Ch. 21 
in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, 
as follows : 

The Plymouth Cordage Company are hereby authorized $40,000 

•^,. .,,, ,. additional 

to. increase their capital stock by an amount not exceeding 
4 



so P ly mouth Cordage Company 

forty thousand dollars, and to invest such increase in real and 

Investment P^^^°"^^ estate necessary and convenient for carrying on the 

Proviso^astobygjjjesg of said corporation : provided, that no shares in the 

shares capital stock hereby authorized shall be issued for a less sum 

or amount, to be actually paid in on each, than the par value 

of the shares in the original capital stock of said corporation. 

(Approved by the Governor, March 5, 1850,) 

The stock was increased under this Act to a total of one 
hundred thousand dollars. 

An Act authorizing the Plymouth Cordage Company to 
increase their Capital Stock. 

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives 
in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the 
same, as follows : 

Section I. The Plymouth Cordage Company are hereby 

Capital stock , . , . , . • , , , 

increased authorized to mcrease their capital stock, by an amount not 

°°'°°° exceeding one hundred thousand dollars and to invest their 

present capital and such increase in real and personal estate, 

as is necessary and convenient for carrying on the business of 

Proviso said corporation : provided that no shares in the capital stock 

hereby authorized shall be issued for a less sum or amoimt, 

to be actually paid in on each share, than the par value of 

the shares in the original stock of said corporation. 

Sec. 2. This Act shall take effect from and after its 

passage. 

(Approved by the Governor, March 9, 1855.) 

The stock was increased under this Act to a total of one 
hundred and fifty thousand dollars. 

The stock was increased under the general laws as follows : 

1863. Capital increased from ^150,000 to ^200,000. 
1883. Capital increased from 200,000 to 500,000. 
1894. Capital increased from 500,000101,000,000. 



Plymouth Cordage Company 51 

BY-LAWS 

OF THE 

PLYMOUTH CORDAGE COMPANY. 



Article I. 

Board 

The Board of Directors shall consist of five members. °f. ^ 

Directors 

Article II. 

The Treasurer shall give a bond in the sum of twenty treasurer 
thousand dollars, with sureties satisfactory to the Directors, 
which bond vshall be in the custody of the Clerk. At each 
annual meeting of the Stockholders, the Treasurer shall make 
a full report of his doings for the preceding year, and he 
shall, from time to time, make such further reports to the 
Directors as may be called for by them. 

He shall have power to make purchase and sale of manu- . 
facturing stock and supplies, appoint agents under him, and 
otherwise superintend and conduct the business of the Cor- 
poration, and make contracts relating thereto, unless other- 
wise voted by the Directors ; but no note for the payment 
of money shall be binding on the Company unless signed by 
the Treasurer and countersigned by one or more of the 
Directors ; except that the Treasurer may borrow money 
from any of the National or Savings Banks in Plymouth not 
exceeding ten thousand dollars from any one bank. 

Article III. 

The Clerk shall keep records of meetings of the Directors, Qjgj.jj 
as well as of meetings of the Corporation, and in the records 
of the meetings of the Directors he shall give the names of 
the Directors present. 

Article IV. 

An auditing committee of Stockholders shall be chosen by Auditing 
ballot at the annual meeting, whose duty it shall be to em- Committee 



52 Plymouth Cordage Company 

ploy an expert to examine the accounts of the Treasurer, 
and the stock issues, and they shall fix his compensation, 
carefully consider his report and submit the same to the 
Stockholders at their annual meeting with such additional 
report as they see fit. 

Article V. 

Vacancies In case of the absence or disability of the President, 
Treasurer or Clerk, the Directors may choose a person to 
fill such office pro tempore, and in case of a vacancy in any 
office, the Directors shall have power to fill the same, until 
the Stockholders take action thereon, which they may do at 
any special meeting. 

Article VI. 

Annual The Annual Meeting of the Corporation shall be held in 
the month of September, at such time and place as may be 
fixed by the Directors, and if the Directors fail before the 
last Tuesday in August to fix a time and place, then the time 
and place shall be fixed by the Clerk. 

Article VII. 
Special Special Meetings may be called at any time by order of 

Meeting ,„., f> j _ } j 

the rresident, or on a request m writing presented to the 
Clerk signed by any two of the Directors, or any three of 
the Stockholders representing not less than two hundred 
shares of the Capital Stock. No business shall be transacted 
at any special meeting of the Corporation except such as is 
specified in the notice of the meeting. 

Article VIII. 

The presence of not less than three parties, representing 
not less than fifteen hundred shares, shall be deemed to con- 
stitute a quorum at meetings of the Corporation. 



P lymouth Cordage Company sz 



Article IX. 

Notices of Meetings of the Corporation shall issue in the Meetings^ 
name of the Clerk, and shall be deposited in the Post Office, 
addressed to each Stockholder at his last known address, three 
days at least before any special meeting and one week before 
the Annual Meeting. Meetings of the Directors may be 
called by the Clerk or any two Directors. 

Article X. 

The seal of the Corporation shall be a round brass plate gg^j 
with a figure of a ship in the centre, surrounded by a circle 
containing the name of the Corporation. 

Article XI. 

The Clerk shall certify on each certificate of stock that it Certificates 
has been recorded. 

Article XII. 

These by-laws shall not be amended except by a vote of By-Laws 
a majority of the stock of the Corporation at any Annual 
Meeting, or at a special meeting called for the purpose. 

Article XIII. 

(Adopted Oct. 7, 1890.) 

A meeting of the Directors shaU be held without notice Special 

^ , ° _ Directors 

immediately after the Annual Meeting of the Stockholders. Meeting 
Article XIV. 

(Adopted Sept. 28, 1894.) 
A stock vote shall be taken at any meeting of the Corpora- stock voting 
tion upon the request of any Stockholder, and in taking such proxies 
vote such Shareholder or his proxy shall be entitled to one 
vote for each share held or represented by him. 



54 P lymouth Cordage Company 

ORIGINAL SUBSCRIBERS. 

Caleb Loring ^3,800 

C. G. Loring 200 

Bourne Spooner 3>ooo 

Jno. Russell , 1,000 

C. C. Nichols . ., 3,000 

Jno. Dodd 2,000 

T. J. LoBDELL, Guardian .... 1,000 
C. F. KupFER (for C. C. Nichols) . 1,500 

David Low 1,500 

Wm. Lovering, Jr 3,000 

^20,000 
PRESIDENTS. 
Article third of Early By-Laws says : " The senior Direc- 
tor present, reckoning by the order of election, shall be the 
presiding officer at all meetings." The records mention no 
election of president until 1867. 

Since 1 867 the record is as follows : — . 

Nathan C. Keep 1867-187 5 

John A. DoDD 1875-1890 

Caleb Wm. Loring 1890-1897 

George G. Crocker . . . -I t 1 * ^* o - 

(July 6, 1897 

Augustus P. Loring . . July, 1897 to date 

DIRECTORS. 

Caleb Loring .... 1824—1834 term 10 ^ears 

Wm. Lovering, Jr. . . {jg^gllssi} 5 

T T» f I824-I829 ") 

JohnDodd ...... 1^851-1859 1 '^ 

David Low 1824-1830 6 

Bourne Spooner .... 1824—1870 46 

Charles C. Nichols . . . 1827-1831 4 

John Russell ..... 1830-1857 27 



P lymouth Cor 


dage Company 


ss 


Elijah Loring 


1831-1846 term 15 ;jears 




James Harris .... 


/ 1831-1838") 
1 1841-1850 j 


16 




Robert G. Shaw . . . . 


1834-1853 


19 




Levi H. Marsh . . . 


1 1838-1841 \ 
\ 1846-1871 j 


28 




D. N. Spooner . . . 


f 1850-1852) 
1 1857-1859} 


4 




G. HowLAND Shaw 


1853-1856 


3 




Benjamin S. Rotch . . 


1856-1882 


26 




John A. Dodd .... 


. 1859-1890 


31 




QuiNCY A. Shaw . . 


. 1859-1860 


I 




N. C. Keep .... 


. 1860-1875 


15 




C. W. Spooner . . . 


1870-1885 


^5 




C. W. LoRING .... 


1871-1897 


26 




Calvin S. Damon . . . . 


1875-1878 


3 




George G. Crocker . . . 


1878- 


21 




Schuyler S. Bartlett 


1882- 


»7 




L. A. Plummer . . 


1882-1885 


3 




W. Rotch 


1885-1892 


7 




James E. Dodd .... 


1890-1895 


5 




Augustus Lov/ell . . . 


1892- 


7 




J. Whitney Austin 


1894- 


5 




Augustus P. Loring . 


1897- 


2 





In the seventy-five years there have been twenty-eight 
Directors. The Board has consisted of five members. 
The average service of each Director has been thirteen years. 
Seven Directors have served over twenty years each. 



TREASURER. 



Caleb Loring 
James Harris . 
Bourne Spooner . 
Charles W. Spooner 
Gideon F. Holmes . 



1824-1834 
1834-1837 
1837-1870 
1870-1882 
1882- 



W 



5^ P lymouth Cordage Company 

AGENT. 

Bourne Spooner 1824-1837 

when the office was combined with that of Treasurer. 



CLERK 
Charles G. Loring . 
Francis C. Loring . 
C. W. Loring 
Augustus P. Loring 
Theron a. Apollonio 



1824-1 83 1 
1831-1845 
1845-1884 
1884-1897 
1897- 



BOARD OF OFFICERS. 

1899. 

directors. 
George G. Crocker Augustus Lowell 

Schuyler S. Bartlett J. Whitney Austin 

Augustus P. Loring, President 

Treasurer t Gideon F. Holmes 

Clerk, Theron A. Apollonio 



OFFICE EMPLOYEES. 

Entered Co.'/ Service 

jAMZsMvLhitis, Travelling Salesman . . Jan. 30,1871 

T. Allen Bagnell, Skipper . ^ . . . Jan. 3, 1881 

Mrs. Annie C. Faunce, Stenographer . . Feb. 24, 1888 

James Spooner, Paymaster Apr. 17, 1888 

Willis K. Heath, Bookkeeper Jan. i, 1889 

Ahira B. Kelley, Clerk Aug. 27, 1890 

Harvey A. Soule, Clerk Feb. 22, 1891 

Elwyn L. Brewster, Clerk May 2, 1893 

Fred. A. Hall, Clerk . Oct. 17, 1893 

Francis C. Holmes, Asst. Superintendent . Aug. i, 1894 

John H. Young, Office Boy Nov. 7, 1898 

Henry E. Gero, Stenographer May 16, 1898 



Plymouth Cordage Company si 



RECORD OF SUPERINTENDENTS AND 
OVERSEERS NOW EMPLOYED BY 
THE PLYMOUTH CORDAGE COMPANY. 



NAME. 


Age when 
commenc- 
ing work. 


Period when 
not employed 
by company. 

Years. 


Present 
age. 


Number 
of years 
employed. 


David Brown . 


27 




74 


47 


Alexander McLean 


16 




61 


45 


Philip Schalch . 
Richard McLean . 


16 

25 


2 


61 

70 


45 

43 


W. Harris Green . 


21 


. . 


58 


37 


Oliver Holmes . 


17 


. . 


52 


35 


Heman Robbins 
Jacob Mahler, Jr. . 
Wm. E. Churchill . 


24 
II 
23 




58 
45 
56 


34 
34 
33 


Matthew Clinch . . 


28 


. . 


61 


33 


Henry Buhman 
Alex. K. McLean 


10 

9 


2 


43 
39 


31 

30 


George Lyon . 
George Griffin . 
R. A. Brown, Supt. . 
David Dunn 


13 
15 
12 
10 


10 
I 

6 


53 
46 
42 

45 


30 
30 
30 
29 


H. L. Stegmaier . . 
George Swan, Jr. . . 
D. M. Bosworth . . 


10 
14 
19 


4 


39 

43 
51 


29 
29 

28 


Henry Heramerly . 
Charles Brewster . . 


13 
13 




41 
40 


28 
27 


Alexander Morrison . 


14 


2, 


41 


25 


Nich. Stephan . 
Chas. J. Stegmaier 
Wm. Brewster . 


10 
10 
II 


7 


35 
41 

34 


25 
24 
23 


Thomas Swan . 


13 


. . 


35 


22 


Alex. McLean, Jr. 


12 




34 


22 


Wm. Anderson 


35 




55 


20 



58 P lymouth Cordage Company 



RECORD OF WORKMEN NOW EMPLOYED Z)j-*2ie 
PLYMOUTH CORDAGE CO. WHO HAVE BEEN 
IN ITS SERVICE TWENTY YEARS OR MORE. 



NAME. 


Age when 
commenc- 
ing work 


Period when 
not employed 
by company. 

Years. 


Present 
age. 


Number 

of years 

employed. 


J. B. Noyes . . . 


25 


I 


74 


48 


Edward P. Noyes . . 


20 




68 


48 


Richard Arthur 


23 




69 


46 


Mathias Grozenger 


26 




71 


45 


William Haggerty . 


28 




73 


45 


Valentine Zahn . 


23 




68 


45 


George Swan . 


30 




74 


44 


James Frothingham 


22 


3 


68 


43 


Edward W. Westgate . 


13 




55 


42 


James F. Kendrick 


17 




58 


41 


George Grozenger . 


20 


5 


65 


40 


Charles H. Holmes . 


14 


5 


58 


39 


Lemuel Cobb . 


10 


4 


52 


38 


Patrick Carr 


9 


5 


51 


37 


William S. Faunce 


40 




n 


37 


William S. Scott . . 


33 




70 


37 


Jacob T. Morton . 


13 


28 


77 


36 


Henry Reckenbeil . 


31 




66 


35 


Albert Noyes . . . 


24 




58 


34 


Heman Robbins 


24 




58 


34 


James H. Robbins . 


35 




69 


34 


Michael Dolan . . , 


26 


I 


60 


33 


Charles Mahler . . . 


10 




43 


33 


James Cameron 


23 


. . 


55 


32 


Pelham W. Freeman . 


28 




60 


32 


Louis H. Gould .• . 


18 




49 


31 


John Dolan .... 


22 




, 5^ 


30 


Caleb B. Green . . 


23 




53 


30 



Plymouth Cordage Company 59 



RECORD OF "SSI OTLYLME.^ — Continued. 



NAME. 


Age when 
commenc- 
ing work. 


Period when 
not employed 
by company. 

Years. 


Present 
age. 


Number 

of years 

employed. 


John Krantz 


35 


.. 


65 


30 


Jacob Braunecker . 




28 




SI 


29 


Frank M. Kennedy- 




28 




56 


28 


Lorenzo W. Wood 




10 




38 


28 


Antone Beytes . 




34 




61 


27 


William M. Brown 




12 


I 


■ 40 


27 


Andrew Carr . 




15 




42 


27 


John Goeller 






26 




53 


27 


James Gardner . 






10 


3 


40 


27 


John Moore 






32 


I 


60 


27 


Jacob Stephan . 






10 


. . 


37 


27 


Adolph Schreiber 






26 


I 


54 


27 


Daniel A. Devine 






13 




39 


26 


Peter Henry 






30 


. . 


56 


26 


John Wolfe . . 






14 




40 


26 


Paul Karle . . 






25 


I 


51 


25 


Franz Phillips . 






25 


3 


52 


24 


Bernard Wolfe . 






12 


2 


38 


24 


David Werkmeistei 






24 


. , 


48 


24 


John Miller . . 






21 


3 


47 


23 


Turner Winsor 






35 


. . 


57 


22 


Willard C. Butler 






1 1 


5 


37 


21 


Daniel Perrior . 






32 , 




53 


21 


Charles Webber 






26 




47 


21 


William M. Barnei 






34 


V • 


54 


20 


Gideon E. Cash 






34 


. . 


54 


20 


Nathan King 






37 




57 


20 



The number of employees of the company in 1879 was 
266 5 31% of these are still in the company's service. 



6o P lymouth Cordage Company 

PLYMOUTH CORDAGE COMPANY. 

Seventy-fifth Anniversary, 
1824 — 1899. 

PROGRAMME FOR THE CELEBRATION. 

October 7, 1899. 

A. M. 

9.30 Band Concert. 
10.00 Running Race. 18 years and over, best two out of 

three, 150 yards. 
10.05 Men's Race. 30 years and over, one heat, 150 yards. 
10.10 Throwing Baseball. 
10.25 2nd Heat Running Race. 
10.30 Three-legged Race. 100 yards. 
10.40 3rd Heat Running Race. 
10.45 Tug-of-War. Main Mill and Rope-walk. 
10.50 Tug-of-War. Engine Room and Machine Shop. 

Best t'lvo out of three each pair, ivinners to pull off one 

pull in afternoon. 

10.55 4th Heat Running Race. 

11.00 Cripple Race. Legs tied at the ankles, allowing 15 

inches movement. 100 yards. 

11.15 and Tug-of-War. Main Mill and Rope-walk. 

11.20 2nd Tug-of-War. Engine Room and Machine Shop. 

11.25 Egg and Spoon Race. For girls only. 

11.35 Blindfold Wheelbarrow Race. 

12.00 Presentation of Library. 

p. M. 

12.15 Obstacle Race. 

12.30 Dory Tug-of-War. Best two out of three. 
1.00 Dinner. (Clam-bake.) 

Remarks by Treasurer and Historical Address by Hon. 
George G. Crocker. 
3.15 Sack Race. 60 yards. 
3.30 Bicycle Slow Race. 50 yards with right pedal off. 



P lymouth Cordage Company 6i 

3.45 Water and Basin Race. For girls only, 100 yards, 
3.55 Bicycle Back-and-Forth Race. Five times each way. 

Rider to dismount at each turn. 
4.00 Pull off Tug-of- War. 

Day Fireworks. 
^.30 Band Concert and Fireworks. 

Mr. Arthur B. Holmes and Mr. H. E. Mabbett will act 
as judges on sports. 

The mill will be open for the inspection of stockholders from 
11.00 to 11.45. 

No smoking allowed in or about the company's buildings. 



The winners of the various events were: — 

Running Race for Boys — Thomas Cavanaugh, first ; Fred 
Lunghi, second ; Charles Arthur, third. 

Men's Race- — Charles Beytes, first; John S. Noyes, second j 
W. E. Finney, third. 

Throwing Baseball — Richard Brown, first 5 Charles Sanderson, 
second ; William Eldridge, third. 

Three-legged Race — Walter Gould and Harry Simmons, first ; 
S. Christopheri and Fred Hertel, second j A. Gavoni and F. 
Lambroghini, third. 

Cripple Race — Walter Gould, first; Thomas Cash, second; 
Edmund Boutemain, third. 

Egg and Spoon Race, for Girls — Miss Catherine Robbins, first; 
Miss Florence Everson, second ; Miss Jennie Thom, third. 

Blindfold Wheelbarroiv Race — John VezzanI, first; C. Tas- 
sinari, second ; John Corsari, third. 

Obstacle Race — Selwyn Tinkham, first; Edward Boutemain, 
second ; Walter Gould, third ; Harry Simmons, fourth. 

Sack Race — Chester Ardisoni, first ; Jacob Dries, second ; 
Guy Bunker, third. 



62 P lymouth Cordage Company 

Dory Tug-of-War — Won by Robert Thom, Charles Beytes, 
Jacob Zinseus, David Anderson. 

Bicycle Slo^w Race, one pedal off — Henry Schira, first ; John 
Smith, second ; Harry G. Simmons, third. 

Water and Basin Race, for Girls only — Miss Augusta Busso- 
lari, first ; Miss Benilda Pretti, second ; Miss Emeline HeifBer, 
third. 

Tug-of-War, bet^ween Men from the Engine Room and the Rope- 
<walk — Won by the latter by seven inches. 

Bicycle Back and Forth Race — John Vezzani, first 5 Charles 
Volta, second 5 Henry Schira, third. 

Arthur B. Holmes and H. E. Mabbett acted as judges, and 
the committee in charge comprised John H. Damon, Thomas 
Swan, John Skakle. 



00 



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